The interim chief executive officer for Paris Regional Medical Center is in place, directing operations following Bill Porter’s resignation last week.
Interim CEO Tom Pemberton
Tom Pemberton, 59, vice president of operations for the Brentwood, Tenn., home office of RegionalCare Hospital Partners, was at work Monday in Paris.
He will be the interim CEO until a new head man can be installed.
The effort to identify potential candidates for the position is under way, Jeff Atwood, vice president of communications for RegionalCare, told eParisExtra on Tuesday in a telephone interview from his office in Brentwood.
Porter stepped down on Jan. 8, and PRMC employees were informed of the development by e-mail early the following day.
No reason was given for Porter’s resignation, and Atwood declined Tuesday to elaborate, saying only that it was for personal reasons.
“Bill has been great serving in the position during the transitional phase of Northward Bound at PRMC. Now he is moving on,” Atwood said last week in confirming Porter’s resignation.
Essent Healthcare, Inc., the former owner of the Paris hospital, merged in the fourth quarter of 2011 with RegionalCare Hospital Partner, creating a seven-hospital sytem with hospitals in Texas, Alabama, Connecticut, Ohio, Iowa and Pennsylvania.
RegionalCare owned four non-urban hospitals in Florence, Ala.; Muscle Shoals, Ala.; Ottumwa, Iowa; and Wilminton, Ohio. Essent owned non-urban acute care hospitals in Sharon, Conn.; Southwest Regional Medical Center in Waynesburg, Pa.; and Paris Regional Medical Center.
Pemberton, a graduate of Mercer University in Atlanta, began his healthcare career as a pharmacist before moving into operations in 1991 as an assistant administrator at Vicksburg Hospital in Vicksburg, Miss.
Before joining RegionalCare Hospital Partners, Pemberton was senior vice president and chief operating officer of Capella Healthcare in Franklin, Tenn. Before Capella, he held executive operational roles at LifePoint Hospitals and Province Healthcare Company, also in Tennessee.
By CHARLES RICHARDS
eParisExtra.com
Charles Richards Charles Richards moved to Paris in 2004 after retiring from a 40-year career in journalism – the last 26 years as a news writer and sports writer with The Associated Press in Dallas and Washington, D.C. In mid-2004, The Paris News coaxed him out of retirement, and he began covering the police, court and regional beat for The Paris News. Then in early 2005, he was switched to coverage of a sharply divided Paris City Council. He was appointed by the City Council in 2006 to the 12-member City Charter Review Commission, which extensively rewrote the outmoded document. His writing awards include two first-place awards in statewide competition for feature writing. The most recent was his 2005 story on a Paris doctor’s startling use of leeches in a successful attempt to re-attach a man’s severed ear. Over his career, Richards’ interview subjects include Alabama Gov. George Wallace, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, David Koresh, Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali and numerous other political and sports figures. He is an alumnus of Texas Tech, where he was editor of the school newspaper. He lives in Paris with his wife, Barbara, who is retired after 30 years as a teacher and high school counselor.
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